Family Tree Maker vs. Family Echo

Transcription

1 Family Tree Maker vs. Family Echo A Usability Test

2 Jessie Giguiere 10/29/12 Professor Ariadne Rooney Usability Test I. Introduction The products compared in this usability test were two different types of family tree and family database generators. The first product tested was the online tree-building website Family Echo, which requires an account on the website The second product tested was the free downloadable database program Family Tree Maker from the website The purpose of the test was to determine which program would be better for family genealogists to use regarding ease of usage, display readability, and amount of information that can be given for each individual in the tree. Typical users of both of these programs are family members that, as a hobby, have collected their family histories and are attempting to compile them for viewing and furthering their research. II. Methods The process for testing family trees of any kind is fairly similar: the genealogist starts by entering his or her name, birth date, birth place, marriage date and place if applicable, and any other important life dates that he or she may find important, such as a graduation date. The genealogist then does the same for his or her siblings, and then begins moving back through parents, grandparents, etc., adding death dates and places when applicable. The most traditional family tree programs focus on the three main life events that genealogists are interested in birth, marriage, and death in their displays. However, many programs also allow for the input of other important life events. I began my test a few days prior to this review on my laptop. I have been compiling my family history for seven years now, and thus have amassed enough people in my tree to provide a good example for building large trees in both programs. III. Results III.1 Ease of Usage Without contest, I found Family Echo to be far easier to use that Family Tree Maker. Both programs have entirely different designs: the former is designed to reflect more of a family tree, while the latter is meant to be a database of individuals.

3 Image 1: Family Echo screenshot. Image 2: Family Tree Maker database screenshot.

4 Both of the above images show my grandfather, Karl Earl Giguiere Jr. The first shows his ancestry in a tree format. I am able to enter the names of his parents, siblings, spouses, and children simply by clicking on his name and choosing from the menu that appears. The Family Echo program is designed to reduce clutter on the family tree; therefore, when looking at the tree through one individual for example, image 1 is the view of the tree as seen from clicking on myself to view my ancestors it eliminates extended relatives such as great-aunts and great-uncles. These individuals can again be viewed on the tree simply by clicking on their immediate relatives. Image 2 shows the database view of Family Tree Maker, again from the viewpoint of my grandfather. It provides more information about him than what is seen in Family Echo under the events tab, his birth, marriage, graduation, divorce, second marriage, and death dates are listed. However, this information is vastly more difficult to input than in the Family Echo program. Individuals and their data in the Family Tree Maker program cannot be connected simply by clicking on an individual and selecting relatives to add from the menu. Instead, connecting one relative to another and adding information about the newly connected relative requires opening a series of windows. Image 3: My attempt to add a death date to my great-grandfather s events list after connecting him as the father of my grandfather. III.2 Display Readability As can be seen from image 1, Family Echo provides an easy viewing format in the form of a family tree. It provides an easy way to see not only lines of direct descent, but also siblings and cousins of ancestors and descendants. Family Tree Maker provides several ways to look at familial relationships, but neither of these ways illustrates the larger family dynamic. While this is a cosmetic problem, it can be a hindrance when trying to quickly see relations between multiple family members in several different branches. However, there are cases where the family relationship view in Family Tree Maker would be superior to that of Family Echo. An issue with readability in Family Echo is that, when fully expanded, the marriage and sibling relation lines can grow long enough that the user must scroll sideways several

5 times to see the relation. The Relationship view in Family Tree Maker provides a quick and easy way to see marriage and sibling relations without having to search along connection lines. Image 4: Ancestry view in Family Tree Maker for Karl Earl Giguiere Jr. Image 5: Relationship view in Family Tree Maker shows parents, spouse, and siblings.

6 Image 6: Lines from Karl Earl Giguiere Jr. leading to his other siblings and first spouse. Illustrates the issue in Family Echo with displays. III.3 Amount of information Family Tree Maker has the capability of providing far more information than Family Echo. While this plethora of information comes at the expense of ease of usage and, to a lesser extent, readability, genealogists attempting to create a more enriched familial history account may benefit more from the information that Family Tree Maker is able to provide. Perhaps the most helpful of all the tools found in Family Tree Maker that provide more information is the Events tab, found under each individual s name. This tab allows users to go beyond recording the traditional birth, marriage, and death events to also recording other key events, such as graduation, military service, and retirement. However, this information can also be entered less formally in Family Echo under the Bio Notes section in each individual s profile. Image 7: Events tab under Karl Earl Giguiere Jr.

7 Image 8: My biographical tab in Family Echo. IV. Conclusion There are many things for a genealogist to consider when comparing tree and database programs. Chief among these is the trade-off between ease of usage, display readability, and the amount of information that the database will allow. Based on these factors, my recommendation is that Family Echo is better for individuals who have taken up genealogy as a hobby with information that they would like to organize and share. However, Family Tree Maker is a better program for those genealogists that would like to take a deeper look at their family history and record detailed information without having a primary concern of displaying this information to other family members or the public.